Walter Myers - Carmen

JOSÉ

What boy? Look, I don’t have time to talk now. I have to go and pack some things.

(He looks around.)

I guess I’m one of you now. Carmen, wait here for me!

JOSÉ leaves, stopping for a moment to look at RAIMONDO as he returns.

RAIMONDO

We’re screwed if Zuniga changes his mind. He can arrest everybody here and make it stick if he wants to. Now we have to pull this job off. We better make it pay big-time or we’re all in trouble. How about you, Carmen? You down with us now?

CARMEN

Yeah, I’m down, Raimondo. I got nothing to lose.

RAIMONDO

Good. I need to hit the streets and get our lookouts on the corners in case Zuniga changes his mind and wants to hit us. You okay, Carmencita?

CARMEN

I’m okay, Raimondo.

RAIMONDO

Everybody out. I need you all on the corners looking out for the heat. Everybody out!

They all leave except for CARMEN, who stands alone, forlorn.

CARMEN sits and, for a long beat, thinks about what has happened. We hear the sound of a harp introducing her song.

CARMEN

(sings “Love Has Flown Away”)

Love came easy, but it just wasn’t for me.

It flew away like swallows on a summer evening.

Love sang softly, but it just wasn’t to me.

Was I a fool to give my love, to give my soul, and more away?

My heart aches with longing, cries each night,

As I just fall apart.

(clearly distressed)

What have I done? What have I done?

Am I so hungry for love that I can’t see

It’s not going to ever happen for me?

I saw the darkness in his eyes

And knew there was even more darkness behind those lovely eyes

And yet…

And yet I kept stumbling blindly

Like some silly schoolgirl from another place, another time.

I’ve got to be the old Carmen again.

Too hard to hurt, too hard to fall in love.

The music continues softly as CARMEN puts her head down on the table.

We are in the back room of Lillas Pastia’s club, which is the home base of DANCAIRO’s crew. There is a bar at the back of the stage, and the back wall is covered with colored curtains depicting scenes from a tropical location.

At one table we see CARMEN, FRASQUITA, and MERCEDES. At the end of the bar, JOSÉ is drinking by himself, head down. The atmosphere is fairly busy, and the music from the sound system is upbeat.

MERCEDES

This boy wants me sooo much, you wouldn’t believe it. If I walk into a room where he is, his heart starts beating faster. You can tell from across the room-you can almost hear it! That’s how much he loves me.

FRASQUITA

Is he cute?

MERCEDES

He drives a BMW.

FRASQUITA

That’s pretty cute. What was he arrested for?

MERCEDES

How do you know he was arrested? You don’t know that.

FRASQUITA

He’s young, he lives around here, he’s been arrested. What for?

MERCEDES

On a technicality. They caught him with some television sets, which he was going to sell but they got to him before he could get the sets out. Then-and you’re not going to believe this-they charged him with possession of stolen goods, and the only reason he had them in his possession was because they arrested him before he could sell them!

FRASQUITA

That’s got to be some kind of violation. That’s what they do to us and then they say we don’t have family values. How are we going to have family values when you can’t afford a place to put your family?

CARMEN

I think I need somebody new to fall in love with. Maybe this weekend. Any parties going on?

FRASQUITA

Whoa, Carmen. What happened to José? I thought you were all hot and bothered over him. All the pain in his eyes and everything? I thought you went for that big-time?

CARMEN

Frasquita, I don’t know if I was really seeing his pain or just seeing the place where it should have been. Sometimes I look at him and I see that shining knight I was talking about. Then I look again and there’s a shadow across his face. I think you can hold some things in you too long and they go bad. It’s as if your soul gets dark. Then it gets to be dangerous. I’m a little bit afraid of him. Maybe I let my heart get away from me. It won’t happen again.

FRASQUITA

I told you that, girlfriend. I’ve been there once or twice myself. Yeah, me, Frasquita Margarita Ortiz. I’ve been head-over-heels in love before. Or was it heels over head? Anyway… I’ve been there! But I’m not sure about you, Carmen. You’re, like, really messed around over that dude. I can even hear it in your voice.

CARMEN

I’m over him. Love knows how to die.

DANCAIRO enters with RAMI and YOSHIRO. RAMI is a slightly built Indian, and YOSHIRO is stocky and Japanese.

DANCAIRO

Here’s my crew! Lay it out for them, guys.

RAMI

This marketing company in Pittsburgh is buying a list of credit-card users. It’s a one-time deal; they’re going to try to sell audio equipment over the Internet to everyone on the list. But instead of just sending the names and e-mail addresses, the card company sent the numbers, too. They have a good security system, but one computer-

YOSHIRO

On the third floor.

RAMI

It monitors everything. We’ve hacked the password and can download all the numbers onto a flash drive in-

YOSHIRO

Forty-two seconds.

RAMI

We need three minutes to go up the back elevator, into the office, get in, and download the numbers, and we’re out of there!

DANCAIRO

The building is empty on weekends except for a rent-a cop who guards the entrance on the first floor. We get a girl in there who needs directions because she’s lost. Then she sees how handsome the guard is. The other two girls are lookouts. Any cops passing by won’t be suspicious of two girls standing on the corner.

FRASQUITA

Sounds good to me.

MERCEDES

And when do we get paid?

DANCAIRO

We’ll do the caper Saturday morning, sell the numbers in the afternoon, and you get paid on Sunday morning. Right after Mass!

There are high fives all around, and DANCAIRO leads RAMI and YOSHIRO out. JOSÉ gets up and approaches the girls’ table.

FRASQUITA

Here comes José. You need us to stay?

CARMEN

No, I’ll be okay.

MERCEDES

We’ll be in the corner. You need us, mami, just whistle.

FRASQUITA and MERCEDES retreat to a corner table.

CARMEN

José, you look like shit, man.

JOSÉ

I feel out of place. What’s inside me, what’s really me deep inside, is different from what’s inside these people watching the world go by.

CARMEN

We all think we’re different, but when it comes around, we end up needing the same things. Somebody to love us. Somebody to respect us.

JOSÉ

Zuniga screwed up my career big-time. All the time I was on traffic duty, I thought about how he was trying to bring me down. I made myself think about you to keep him off my mind. He’s trying to destroy me. You’re my flower, my promise of life and hope.

CARMEN

José, I’m not a flower. I’m not a promise. I’m Carmen.

JOSÉ

That’s not how I thought of you during those hard days.

CARMEN

José, you’re making my head spin. What else were you thinking about?

JOSÉ

About my mother, and how much I miss the life I had with her. Does that sound weak to you? That a grown man should be thinking of his mother?

CARMEN

Of course not. I admire a man who thinks of his mother.

JOSÉ

She doesn’t know about all the changes in my life. I know that what she wants is for me to settle down with some nice girl. I know she wants grandchildren. I think she’s lonely.